Proposal ticket here:
http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/3270
Deadline for discussion: June 15 (2 weeks)
Text of the proposal:
The `packedstring` library has been superseded by the `bytestring` and
`text` libraries, yet we are still shipping it with GHC for only one
reason: it is used in the representations of three types in
`template-haskell`.
The proposal is that we
* make the types `ModName`, `PkgName`, and `OccName` from
`Language.Haskell.TH.Syntax` into abstract newtypes (an API change)
* change their representation from `PackedString` to `String`
* drop the `packedstring` library from the bootlibs that GHC ships with
Relevant discussions:
* [http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/libraries/2008-November/010960.html]